Ethiopia informed Sudan on Thursday that it had not started the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Sudan's foreign ministry said in a statement. Ethiopia's charge d'affaires in Khartoum also told a senior Sudanese Foreign Ministry official that his country had not closed the dam gates or retained water inside its reservoir, the statement added. The Ethiopian official said the swelling of the dam's reservoir is caused by rains flooding the Blue Nile. “Due to the rainy season, water gathered naturally in the dam's lake,” he was quoted as saying. The Ethiopian official's remarks came during a meeting with Babiker Al-Siddiq, the director of the Neighboring Countries Department at the Sudanese foreign ministry, earlier on Thursday. He reiterated his country's commitment to ongoing negotiations mediated by the African Union with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan.
